Episode 3-57
Summary The episode begins as a flashback to a time in the third dimension (human realm) on a distant planet. Gandharva, in his Sura form, is surrounding the planet, about to destroy it. Several of the planet's gods are fighting back, but even Paradisial Flare does not leave a scratch on him. The gods begin to give up, mourning the fact that they cannot save the humans who trusted them, and wondering if the higher gods even care about their plight. Suddenly, there is a flare, and Agni appears, using his powers to weaken Gandharva. The planet's gods are happy that Agni has managed to subdue him. One of them notes that Agni, with his power, could even have the ability to establish peace in the universe. Agni thinks that it is a little too early for that assumption. Just then, Gandharva revives and the gods are in a panic, as even paradise cannot kill him. Agni states that it can't be helped, and asks the planet's gods to accompany him to the God realm for now. To his surprise, the gods refuse, stating that this was their planet. If the planet was destroyed, they too would go out of existence. Staying in the gods' realm would only prolong their lives temporarily. Agni is aghast, replying that it would be better than dying on the planet, but the planet's gods refuse, saying they would prefer to die on their planet, as they failed to fulfill their godly responsibility of protecting the planet and its inhabitants. They express their gratitude to Agni for coming over to help them when he could've easily overlooked the destruction of a small planet- right as the entire planet is destroyed. The scene changes to somewhere in the seventh dimension, the Underworld, some time after Agni has revived from the planet's destruction. Yama asks if Agni died in a fight, then realizes that he must have been on the planet that was just destroyed. Yama notes that the planet's destruction is a shame, as there was a pretty smart goddess on that planet. Agni bitterly states that Yama has changed, to which Yama responds that he should try being in Yama's position, with so many deaths happening every day. He states that the gods cannot last unless they learn to let go. Agni says he knows this, and is simply sad that the one person he thought would understand his feelings does not. The scene switches again to the sixth dimension, the god realm. Agni approaches Brahma, while she is blowing bubblegum and fishing for something unknown. Brahma wryly states that the other gods usually have more respect for her, before Agni asks if the primeval gods truly have Gandharva's back, as Agni used Paradisial Flare on him, and he almost died, yet revived for some reason. Brahma reveals that Gandharva cannot be killed with it since he has someone else to pay the price for his sins instead. Agni, shocked, asks if this means that he should kill the bearer of his sins, to which Brahma says that would mean purging all of Gandharva's sins. Transcendentals do not work on him, so Brahma says the only way to defeat him is by pure force, to which Agni lashes out that it is impossible. He continues to say that he doesn't understand why the primeval gods made the Universe this way, and that, in the end, it was all Brahma's fault. Brahma then asks what is wrong with the universe. Agni, dumbfounded by this question, describes how she has created humans- beings who love, reason, communicate, and can even bind to each other in matrimony- and then created Gandharva, someone who mercilessly slaughtered these people. Brahma then asks if the other gods feel this way. If they did not, then it was his problem that could easily be rectified by using the enlightening system, and leaving all of the meaningless worldly passions behind, just like the other gods. Agni interrupts Brahma and asks since when was the system created for the pursuit of pleasure, since it was at first created to remind enlightened beings of virtue and compassion. He once again blames Brahma for ruining the universe, corrupting the system to obscure the faults of the universe. Tired of his complaints, Brahma fabricates a weapon for Agni to use in order to kill Gandharva, stating that if he wants to kill him, he must figure out how to use it himself, and brave the many years of suffering it will take. The scene switches a third time to somewhere in the first dimension, hell. Agni is keeping the weapon Brahma gave him sealed here, and has dubbed it 'The Sword of Hellfire' able to come at his beck and call. The power in the sword, Yama, who is frequenting hell at the moment with Indra observes, is one that is unheard of; if the wielder is hit by a fire attribute transcendental and survives, they learn the transcendental. Indra is shocked as he realizes that this means that the wielder of the sword could even learn the unique fire transcendentals of powerful nastikas, as long as they survive. Though it is difficult and nearly impossible to survive, a few millennia of trying could lead to someone being lucky enough to survive. Indra admits that he finds it strange that Brahma, a goddess known for her neutrality, has given Agni the sword- something that Yama agrees with. Yama reveals that he had asked her beforehand as to why she gave him the sword, only for her to put down the work she was doing to help him and disappear, so he wasn't going to ask her anymore. Indra promptly decides to ask Brahma for a weapon as well, leaving Yama to do his work without help. Five hundred million years later, a blazing Agni wakes up the colossal Vritra from his nap, demanding a fight. As it turns out, this isn't the first fight they've had- Agni has been attacking Vritra to get his transcendentals, spending tens of thousands of years finding his hiding spots to do so. Vritra is annoyed, but Agni continues to egg him on, calling him inept and saying that Taksaka could surpass him, as he has more variety in his attacks. Finally past his limit, Vritra uses his most powerful transcendental, 'Fathomless Fire,' which he can defeat any Nastika with. Agni survives the attack, since, according to Vritra, he is a god who can enter all existing dimensions. Vritra then asks him to leave him alone to sleep as the transcendental takes effect, sending Agni to the 0th dimension, which is nothingness. This is where souls are torn apart, and the unenlightened are annihilated. Agni has at last discovered the power that will defeat Gandharva. The scene does its final change to the third dimension, the human realm, once more. Agni has finished practicing fathomless fire, and is searching for Gandharva among all of the planets with lots of water, but he has yet to find him. Instead, he is greeted by Menaka, who is surprised to see Agni, the god of fire, on a watery planet. Agni is at once concerned for Menaka's safety, fearing that another hostile nastika may attack her. he then asks her where Gandharva is. Menaka at once realizes that Agni has found out a way to kill him. Agni says that he has, and Gandharva's slaughters would finally end and put Menaka at peace. Menaka seems unsure, stating that she is still one of the Gandharva clan. Agni, nonplussed, asks if Menaka was really going to cover up for him now, as she knew that his sins must disappear from the universe. Menaka then reveals that those are her sins to bear. As Agni stares in disbelief, Menaka asks if Brahma truly did not tell him who had chosen to bear the burden of Gandharva's sins. Currygom's comment I want to reduce the number of flashbacks, but there's nothing I can take out. T_T Afterword A highly-advanced planet can unexpectedly disappear. Gods with jurisdictions below solar system-level are mostly first- and second-Zen gods. Even though they are gods, they can't be called immortals. In order for them to live longer, rather than caring for and developing humans in their jurisdictions, they're better off leaving them on their own. Whenever a planet becomes advanced and powerful, it is easily noticed by suras like Gandharva. a god fisherman The thing she is fishing for is not fish. Give me a weapon, too! (throws a tantrum) At the time, there were no chains around the sword yet. LET! ME! SLEEP! Vritra is incredibly strong, but he has rarely caused any harm to humans. Sleep comes first, before anything else... Notes * There is a flashback scene in Season 1 that shows Agni fishing next to Vayu in the god realm. Could he have been fishing for the same thing as Brahma? * As mentioned in the afterword, Agni's sword did not originally have a chain wrapped around it. At this point in the story, we do not know why it has chains now. When Agni gained Extermination, and the limitations of Vritra's Fathomless Fire The process through which Agni gained Extermination has not been included on purpose. If you only read the webtoon, there's no reason to be curious about this—the name Extermination has never even appeared—and if you've read the blog settings, then you already know about it. Right now, I'm in the process of wrapping up the flashbacks as quickly as possible, and to include how he gained this transcendental skill would just mean more unnecessary story... For the purpose of the story, all you need to understand is that the solution to killing Gandharva is Fathomless Fire, and the fact that Agni gained that skill. Details such as the fact that Fathomless Fire is a transcendental that can only be used in sura form, that Agni couldn't use it until he gained Extermination first... or how long it took... are really not essential to understanding the story. It's almost a waste of extra content. For this episode, I worked so hard to include the part where Menaka appears, and if I had to also include the part where he gained Extermination... seriously... ugh... T_T (From here on, I'll answer questions posed by those who've read the blog settings.) Anyway, as to when he gained the skill Extermination, there has been no change to the setting I posted. He gained this skill after he gained Fathomless Fire. Agni tried to use the Fathomless Fire skill right after he gained it but realized that he couldn't do it, and after realizing that one of its requirements is to be a sura, he all but gave up on the ability and went about his business. Even though the Sword of Hellfire allows him to copy transcendentals, the requirement where he must survive the attack only applies to offensive transcendentals, and he couldn't think of a method to copy a way to surafy using the attack. Agni often bothered Taksaka, but as you know if you read the side novel the finite, many of Taksaka's moves need the opponent's intent to kill as an activation requirement. It's quite easy to tell that Agni has no intention to kill him. Therefore, there's no need to defend against the attacks, and there's no need for Taksaka to even surafy, so he stays in human form, barely even making an effort to attack. Since Agni's aim was to gain more offensive transcendentals, he tried very hard to get hit by as many of Taksaka's attacks as he could, whether Taksaka was in human or sura form... Ultimately, the point at which Taksaka surafies and Agni gains this ability is something that happens a long time afterwards, as they happened to be fighting someone else instead of each other. They never fought seriously with each other with the intent to kill one another. Reference post: Transcendental skills: Agni Reference post: the finite, 2012 edition, final episode. (If you didn't read the novel, beware of spoilers.) Some of you have asked if Vritra is invincible when he is using Fathomless Fire, but that question has already been answered in the world building post. For Agni and the other 5th-Zen gods, because they have reached nirvana, they are able to safely return from the 0th dimension—this shows that there are limits to what Fathomless Fire can do—'and if they aren't a 5th-Zen god, they can kill Vritra before they are moved to the 0th dimension.' But as you have seen in this episode, he's able to transport you in the time it takes to exchange just a few words. If Vritra wants to, he can slow this process down, but if his goal is to kill the enemy, there's no reason to do that. So, anyone who's not familiar with Fathomless Fire might go "Huh, what's this?", get moved to the 0th dimension, and die. Even someone who knows about the skill would have to kill Vritra in this very short window of time... hmm... yes... there are very few living beings capable of doing this. For nastikas who are more focused on attacks than defense, depending on attributes and strategy, there is some possibility of survival, such as for Taksaka, but for nastikas who focus more on defense, like Gandharva, it's the end. For one, Gandharva doesn't even have a skill that can cause critical damage to a high-level nastika like Vritra... He ends up in a stalemate with many low-level nastikas because he's unable to deal any meaningful damage... Reference post: Relationship between nastika ranking and strength I also talked about this in a public Q&A a while back, where someone asked who'd win in a match between Vritra and Gandharva. Since the Dragon clan is unable to unify, it would end up with Vritra as an individual vs the entire Gandharva clan, so the latter would win. Yes, Vritra by himself against not just Gandharva, but his entire clan. The person who asked the question was probably thinking about a matchup between Vritra and Gandharva, like an honorable duel, but I answered it as a fight between clans. The winner of such a duel is so obvious as to not warrant a proper answer. There is some similarity between Vritra and Ananta having such ridiculously powerful transcendentals. If you were to rank which kings have the least amount of ambition to make use of great power, the first would be Ananta, and the second would be Vritra. If you don't understand what this means, think about what would happen if someone like Gandharva had the Fathomless Fire skill. As an aside, Ananta is the only person against whom Fathomless Fire wouldn't work, the reason being... he's too large. References